


Wild and Clear

by merriman



Category: The Box of Delights (TV)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Gen, Magic, Matter-of-fact Spellcasting, Men Getting Themselves in Trouble, Standing Stones in Strange Places
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:21:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21912838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merriman/pseuds/merriman
Summary: When Maria Jones was eleven years old, she had one of the most realistic, terrifying, exhilarating, wondrous dreams she would ever have in her life. Amazingly, unlike so many of her other adventurous dreams, when she woke from this one she found it had not been a dream at all. Magic was real and by the time Maria is an adult, she and Kay have found different ways of going about it.
Relationships: Maria Jones & Kay Harker
Comments: 9
Kudos: 17
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Wild and Clear

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Selenay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selenay/gifts).



> The world needs more Maria Jones and thus, a treat for you!

There were two standing stones in the middle of the street in front of Maria's flat in London. She wasn't entirely sure why they were there. They certainly hadn't been there when she'd gone to sleep. They didn't look like any of the stone from any nearby buildings. They were irregular and moss-covered, like standing stones ought to be, and they were most definitely sitting in the street, embedded as if the street had been built around them. There was a ringing in the back of Maria's head, almost not a sound at all, and there was an odd mineral taste in her mouth. The magic inherent to the city, newer magic than she'd encountered in her childhood, tended to be more metallic in nature, and carried a feel to it that reminded Maria a bit of the pistol she had once carried in her pocket. She tended to keep a knife and a handful of charms these days. They worked faster. But those standing stones, those weren't new magic. They were old. And they shouldn't have been there.

_This had better be important,_ she thought to herself as she got dressed and left her flat to investigate. 

Sure enough the stones were real. Well, they were real to Maria. Who knew if they'd be real to anyone else. Maria had found that only a handful of other people seemed to see the things she saw, or notice the things she noticed. Her brother and sisters didn't, though they'd had nearly the same exact adventures she'd had, so you'd think they would. But no. Kay did, but he stuck with the older magic, tromping around in the woods near Seekings or traveling to learn what he could of other lands and the magic they held. Maria, for her part, had gone back to school after those holidays, but found that magic was all over the place if you bothered to look properly. Missives to and from Kay kept them both apprised of what they'd learned, but they traveled in different magical circles these days.

Not that it took much looking to see the stones. They were huge, towering over her head, and now that she was down in the street, right next to them, she could feel the power coming off them in waves.

Well. There was nothing for it. If the stones had appeared in front of her flat, that likely wasn't a coincidence. Maria checked her pockets and bag for her various tools - candles, matches, crystal bottle with a latched stopper, packets of soil from different parts of the country, pen, notebook, lock picks, torch, handkerchiefs, salt. It would have to do. Maria held a hand out in front of herself, palm up, and stepped forward. She met a slight resistance as she moved between the stones, but it was more like a breeze blowing at her than something truly trying to keep her back. 

Once through the space between the stones, Maria looked around. Seekings. She should have known.

Except no one seemed to be around. The house was all locked up and the car was in the garage under a cover. Maria peered in through the windows and saw no sign that anyone had been home recently. She hadn't spoken to Kay in months. As far as she recalled, he'd gone to France to meet some magician to talk about the local folklore. 

Maria got out her lockpicks and set to work on the back door. Of course Kay had it warded too, but she had, long ago, set a little spell on her picks that dealt with most lock wards. Or at least it kept them from melting her picks. She'd lost four sets before she'd perfected the spell.

Inside the house there was a chill in the air that had nothing to do with the weather. It was quite pleasant outside, really, but inside? Inside it felt like snow ought to be falling in the parlor. Maria shut the door and then carefully looked around. She had just reached the stairs when she saw a figure standing up at the top. 

"Maria! Excellent. You made it." 

It was Kay, but not Kay somehow. Maria could see right through him to the wall. 

"What's happened, Kay?" she demanded, climbing the stairs to face him. "And if you're going to talk to me when you're not even here, you could have just talked to me in London! Fancy putting a set of standing stones in the street!"

"I couldn't talk to you in London," Kay explained, leading Maria up the rest of the stairs and into the master bedroom. "The stones I could manage from where I am, but I can only appear where I've set up the right spells."

Maria sighed and followed him. "What trouble are you in now?"

"This man in France, turns out he's not as friendly as he seemed on paper. He's got me trapped in a crypt full of bones."

"Jolly!" Maria said, both jealous that Kay had gotten to see that and glad that she hadn't gone with him. Who would have helped them then? "Well, I suppose you need a hand getting back?"

"Would you mind terribly?"

"Of course not," Maria said.

Kay's apparition walked over to a little cabinet by the wardrobe and gestured. "There should be chalk and things in there."

"Chalk," Maria sighed. "I forgot chalk. I used mine up last month and didn't get more." She took out her notebook and made note, then turned to the page where she'd written down some tips the last time she'd tried out a spell like this. 

First she took out the chalk from the cabinet, but the rest of the supplies she needed she had right in her bag. Marks made, candles lit, salt scattered, and then a twisting and pulling in the air, catching it just right to open a hole. Good thing Kay had been fortifying Seekings with magic for the past fifteen years or she wouldn't have had the power to draw on this far outside of the cities she was used to. Once the spell was cast, Maria went and shut the bedroom door, then reopened it. On the other side of the door she could now see the crypt Kay had been stuck in. It wasn't just full of bones, it was built of bones. Fancy Kay not bothering to mention something like that.

"Come on, it won't stay open forever," Maria told him. The real, solid Kay stepped through the door and merged with the apparition and Maria shut the door behind him. "Now, will that French magician be trouble following you?"

Kay shook his head and brushed off his hands. "He shouldn't even know I'm gone for another day. I set up a shadow to fool him and Seekings is warded enough to be away from his sight."

"Well that's good then," Maria said as she broke the spell and cleaned up the chalk and salt and candles. "Fancy dinner in the village? Then we can see about you getting me home."

Kay nodded. "Of course, yes, I've found an interesting spell…"

"Or you can just pay my train fare," Maria suggested. "It's not as fun as magic but it's a whole lot more practical."

After all, the last thing Maria needed was to end up somewhere in the middle of the woods. She had things to attend to back home, and possibly two standing stones to relocate.


End file.
